Sept. 24th 2013

This email is going to be a little scattered because people keep on coming in and out of our office, but if you don't mind neither do I!

Hearing about Uncle Frank in the letter mom sent me was so sad, he will be in my prayers along with the rest of the family. (Uncle Frank and Aunt Vickie helped me a lot when I was making important decisions, I am so grateful for what they did for me). SHOUT out to Aaron for contributing to my mission. I appreciate it so much! This is the happiest I have ever been and it is only possible because the support I have back home. SO thanks I love you.

WOW tell ROBBY HEY! and i miss his stinkin guts. lol its so weird its been 2 years since he left

I was reading a scripture that goes along with that the other day:

Mosiah 5:15 "be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in good works, that Christ, the Lord God Omnipotent, may seal you his" 

"Seal you his" To live with him and our families forever. The importance of temples are really manifest through this.

I had a prompting to call a member who was preparing for his mission when I met him at last conference, even though I didnt know why I called him anyways and explained why i was calling. Turns out he leaves for Tahiti in January!! Ye-haw. Than he explained how he was having a lot of temptation thrown at him lately. As we talked more, we realized his temptations were the same as mine before I left. I was able to advise him on what to do to defeat it. :) heavenly Father knows us all very well.

I have been having miracles in being able to have time to teach this week (because sister bahr is amazing) and because the Lord is merciful. I have reached 3 people I have been trying to teach for weeks now and received many referrals from people themselves that are interested in learning more! One man was on one of our tours was baptized a member when he was 8 but because his parents were not he fell quickly into inactivity and has little to no experience or knowledge of the church. He was however recently with his wife (former catholic) looking for a religion for their little young family of 4. I was able to get the information needed to send him the Book of Mormon, a finding faith in Christ video and the missionaries. I am praying for his family every prayer I have now.

These are a few of the miracles that have been pouring out. I love temple square so much! I am so happy to tell everyone I was told by president Gillette today that I will not be going outbound untill nov 27th!!!!! (mostly because renewing my passport is taking soooo long. But I am excited to have at least one more transfer here while the presidency is the same and the work is great. Also I can't imagin not being in the shadows of the SLC temple this is my home.

Today in Deseret book I ran into the actors from Ephram's rescue! the woman who played the pioneer "Elizabeth" talked to be for almost 15 mins! It was so neat hearing the behind the scene info from TC and now the actress herself. The scene she played where Elizabeth Nearly drowned was a very emotional one.

I had a break through while studying:

1 Nephi 14:14 I, Nephi, beheld the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the church of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and they were ^aarmed with ^brighteousness and with the ^cpower of God in great glory.

"Armed with righteousness" stood out to me. I have heard that many times in primary with the little diagram of the person in actual armor that represents things like "prayer, scripture study , CTR/......" I felt like there was more so I read the reference it has which is "Mission of Latter Day Saints". It spoke of our mission as members of the church, these Covenant people. We are to be missionaries and help others make it. This made me refer to my patriarchal blessing and realize through inspiration through the Spirit of my particular mission and how to accomplish it. I am so grateful for the power of the Book of Mormon, Prayer, and pondering. Now my mission in life is much more clear, worries are gone and I am more focused. I will never forget my personal study on Monday Sept 23, 2013.

On a funnier note, I bumped my head pretty hard on the office dividers in the phone teaching center while on exchanges with my districts. Now big blue has a a friend, Little red lol.

WE FINISHED the TREE of LIFE!!!! Hope yall like it! LOVE YOU CTR

 Moroni preaching the good word

Sister Todd special speaker for Relief Society. She is a publicist for General Conference and the church! she taught us the importance of our calling and appropriately talking with others on difficult questions that will come up at this conference and how to speak to people of a firm strong faith. It was very useful.

4.The tree of life crew (Sister Friend Takahashi -love this girl so much, Sister Lee -same and she is much more Asian-, Sister Bahr, President Seppi who provided the shop for metal work and the moral support :) and myself)

Sept. 17th 2013

The tree of life for General Conference. The theme this conference to focus the sisters is:

1 Nephi 8: 10-12

"And it came to pass that I beheld a ^atree, whose ^bfruit was desirable to make one ^chappy. And it came to pass that I did go forth and partake of the ^afruit thereof; and I beheld that it was most sweet, above all that I ever before tasted....And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul with exceedingly great ^ajoy; wherefore, I began to be ^bdesirous that my family should partake of it also."

We are all children of God so we want to as Lehi did to have our family partake of this fruit and be filled with joy. We are focusing on reactivating less active members and finding new investigators. I really like this , I have always seen members as a high priority.

This week we had some pretty crazy things happen...like our car battery die on the way to walmart. Power steering was gone and i dont know how we made it but we did even though the break light turned on as well. I know we were protected because the breaks completely worked when everything else didnt. We had a strange investigator lesson where even though we cationed the elders who wanted to show a family "Gods Plan for the family" even though they had experienced domestic abuse. It didn't make them feel the spirit needless to say because they felt bitter they neverhad a family like that. We taught them about the power of the atonment which helped. It just goes to show we really need to be careful and teach to the needs of the poeple.

We had our first official district meeting! it was so neat. After sharing our "accountablity" (we share the people we will focus on for the next week and discuss what we can do to help them come closer to christ), I gave instruction on how to help people experience the gospel to believe it. I used Julia Gulia gross as an example ( I hope you dont mind :). i used the story of how when you were little you were told by D to not touch the fire place because it was "HOT" and would make you go "OUCH!" Than one day you leaned your bottom against it...talk about hot crossed buns! lol As sad as that experience was you (julia) learned to not touch it because you experienced what your mom had told you and believed her. This is the same with poeple ablut the gospel and the Spirit. You can talk people's ears off about how belief in Christ and how feeling the spirit will change their lives for the better but until they experience it for themselves it means nothing. Than we did a role play where each sister using one verse from the book of mormon would teach their comp. according to what they needed. Which is possible because the companions know each other but also more importantly because Heavenly Father knows each of us. That meant they would have to listen,  to the sister and the spirit to discern the needs of each other. It was a great experience, one which I have not tried since the MTC. Praying and planning for the sisters this way helped me re-discover this principle of teaching people not lessons.  I love my District.

Okay ran out of time love yalllllll PEACE be unto you...

"Lets Lay some Sod!" *check* seeds planted!

 

                                                        President and SIster Gillette 

This is a string of confussion because office service, though I love it, caused me to start late on emailing:

•  Several 11 hour office days straight & with the help of yogurts on the go WE MADE IT THROUGH TRANSFER WEEK- "YEE-HAWW!"
• My companionship was truly inspired. This week has been...difficult. Senior Companion is scary in the office :) BUT I am so grateful for this stretching and spiritual growth and I had SIster Bahr, she is everything I lack and more, sorry for the cheese, but it is true. It truly was an inspired decision, I know this because I have the inside scoop: The Ap's told they had me paired with a couple different sisters until a week before transfer conference President and sister Gillette returned from the bountiful temple with the inspiration to have sister Bahr as my companion. WOW I cannot thank Heavenly Father enough for that. She is a sweet, kind and fun missionary! The important qualities she possesses as a missionary is: Want to be obedient, caring for others, able to have a clear mind and knowledge for office service and missionary work. Sister Bahr is everything I needed to strengthen my weaknesses.
• Getting pictures of the new sisters with each other is like herding cats, 2 sisters where still missing from the pic so I had to photoshop them in with out the use of photoshop lol it was brutal
• Stuck in Costco for a half hour when the mission card did not work for the lunch in the next day
• Investigator lesson with Elders from the SLC mission was so boss. Mostly because the spirit was so strong, and it made me feel like a missionary and not just an office missionary.
• Secondly I am learning balance and to multiply my love for others I sound like a mom when I say that...weird.. for my district/companion, office service, and investigators. I am still working on it but I know through consistent council with my Heavenly father and following the spirits promptings I can do my best. 
• I might be extending! I asked president a couple days ago so if its approved I will be home Aug 6th and if not June 25th fingers crossed!
• Man this week has been hard but I learned a really good lesson through much tribulation, many prayers and a few tears: life is meant to be hard, heaven is for rest and thats ok, as long as I am following Jesus Christ, it's ok.
• sister bahr and I: realized americans have no clue what "zed" is
• had my first district meeting! and got to hang out with my district. They are all the best and I love how we are all so unique but we all love each other and are so hard working!
• We have a progressing investigator who we were teaching over the phone and just before we invited  him to meet with the local missionaries and attend church he said, "sisters I love learning from you and plan on continuing to, is there also some people like you who live close by that could meet with me in person? And is there a church near by I can go to this sunday?" DING DING DING! YES!

LOVE YOU ALL!

CTR SISTER NELSON

Dropping off Sister Gerrrick at the airport.